Baertschi continues steep NHL learning curve

Puttering around his Kensington home the other day, Sven Baertschi got to wondering.

Doesn’t it ever snow around here?

“Then the next morning, I couldn’t even drive to the rink,” Baertschi, laughing, says in the Calgary Flames dressing room. “So be careful what you wish for here.”

His personal wish-list, of course, extends well beyond seasonal appearances of the white stuff.

A flurry of goals would be nice.

Or even one.

Not that the effervescent freshman has been without opportunity.

Sunday, Baertschi expertly rifled a rebound at a yawning cage, but Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo levered out his right pad and parried the sure tally.

“Those ones can still go in . . . somehow, fumbling it, it can still go over the line,” says Baertschi, sighing. “But not for me right now. I can’t get it.

“I’ve had some good chances.”

In fact, so plentiful are the close calls that when another reporter wanders over and asks Baertschi about a recent instance of being foiled, the lad, only half-joking, demands a more specific query.

“I’ve had so many wide-open nets lately and the goalie always saves it for some reason,” he explains. “As soon as I get the first one, it’s going to come. I’m going to be more comfortable with shooting . . . and maybe have a different feeling when I’m out there.

“Sometimes it goes that way. Last year, it went easy.”

No one forgets last year.

In that tantalizing emergency recall, he scored in three of his first four appearances. So this current spell — no goals, in 10 shots, in nine dates — smarts.

But Baertschi learned a lot from watching his dressing-room neighbour, Jarome Iginla, endure a similar stretch of snakebittenness. Persistence, apparently, is key.

“Now I’m in the situation he was in, so I’m just going to make the best out of it,” Baertschi says. “I’m here to help the team score goals. At one point, it’s got to come and I’ve got to pick it up. I’m really confident that I don’t have to wait for too long.”

Working with Michael Cammalleri and Alex Tanguay, Baertschi was good Thursday in Denver, even better Sunday against the Canucks.

“These games, that’s when you feel more comfortable,” he says, “and you know you can make plays. Lately for me, it’s going really well.”

In addition to having Iginla as a handy role model, there is the comfort provided by Brian (Big Ern) McGrattan.

Sunday had been Baertschi’s first glimpse at the brute in full flight.

“You can see it in his face . . . he wants to hit guys and he wants to play hard,” says Baertschi. “If I was a defenceman and I saw him coming after me? I’d be scared. Pretty scary dude.

“But he’s actually nice. He came over to me and said, ‘You can do whatever you want out there. As soon as someone jumps you, I’m going to go out there and kill them.’ So that was funny.”

More than a bodyguard, Baertschi simply needs to get the hang of the NHL rigours. His boss has crowed about this since Day 1.

“The step for a 20-year-old kid, from major-junior to the NHL, is far from a normal step — it’s a mountain to climb,” says coach Bob Hartley. “This game, it’s so much quicker, it’s so much bigger. At the same time, he has a great shot, he has great natural instincts for the offensive game, and (Sunday), we saw it. A couple of good shots. Dangerous around the net. That’s what we expect out of him.”

But coaches being coaches, no skater — especially a greenhorn — is going to be permitted to cheat in his own zone, no matter what his offensive upside may be.

“Obviously, I’m in my first year (in Calgary), so every young player, I want to make sure that they learn the game in the three zones, that we become a very responsible hockey club,” says Hartley. “So you can’t be a liability out there. Even if you score three, if you give (up) four, you’re still minus-one. The fans love you. But for the coach, it’s another story.”

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